Puerto Rico Might Try to Double Chances to Qualify for World Cup

Qualifying for soccer’s 1994 World Cup is scheduled to begin today, when a team--or perhaps two--from Puerto Rico might appear in a stadium at San Jose, Dominican Republic, to meet the Dominican team.

Upset because 14 national team members are from the mainland United States, with no Puerto Rican heritage, Puerto Rico’s Olympic Committee has threatened to send its own team. Unfazed, the Puerto Rican soccer federation plans to have its team there, as scheduled.

If the game is played, it will be the first of 582 games in a 21-month qualifying tournament involving 138 nations to determine the 22 teams that will join defending champion Germany and the host United States in the 1994 World Cup finals.

In another Caribbean regional qualifying game Sunday, a team from St. Vincent and the Grenadines plays at St. Lucia.

Were it not for the controversy, the game between Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic would attract little international attention. Neither has a rich soccer tradition. In three attempts to qualify, Puerto Rico has lost six games by a combined score of 23-1. The Dominican Republic tried once before, failing to score in two losses to Haiti.

This will be the first World Cup qualifying experience for St. Vincent and the Grenadines and for St. Lucia.

Both games are part of a preliminary round. The same teams will meet again next weekend with the sites reversed. The two prevailing teams will represent the Caribbean later this year in the first round of a tournament that also includes teams from North and Central America. Mexico and Canada received byes to the second round.

The European region will provide the most significant games in the early stages of the qualifying. The first game between teams that are considered contenders to reach the finals in the United States is scheduled for May 20, when Wales plays at Romania.